1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for making a musical instrument. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method for making a percussion instrument from a polyvinyl chloride material.
2. Description of the Related Art
Percussion instruments are known in the art. Methods of making such percussion instruments usually involve multiple and separate steps of manufacture. The steps of the method of manufacture use a number of specific tools and a number of different discrete parts that are assembled together by fasteners or clamps. Percussion instruments usually have a number of parts such as a shell, a chrome fitting, a stand and a skin. Heretofore, a crucial factor in achieving superior tone quality and ensuring durability, is using wood with the shell. The wood shell is preferably created in a round shape and a skin is fitted over the wood shell. A great deal of research and development effort has been put into wood shell manufacturing technology.
Wood shells can be constructed of 6 through 8 wood plies often using different wood materials. These include mahogany, falkata, birch and maple. All are commonly used for shells including single-wood plies, solid wood or man-made materials such as fiberglass, pressed steel, plexiglass, and resin composites. Wood or other composite shells can be finished by laminating the wood shells in plastic. The wood shells may also be made in a large variety of colors and have numerous effects such as a polychromatic shell. The natural wood may be stained or left natural and/or painted with clear lacquer. Steel shells are usually fitted with a chrome, and a plexiglass tint is added.
One or two cast or pressed metal rims are then added to the wood shell. The cast or pressed metal rims are connected by a threaded tension rod or a lug to a nut box that is bolted onto the wood shell. This tension rod assembly needs to be precision machined, casted and fitted and sometimes manually added to enable predictable and secure tuning without inhibiting resonance or introducing extra vibration.
Mounting systems can vary greatly, from a simple cast block on the shell that accepts and clamps to a rod attached to a clamp or holder, to more sophisticated arrangements using a clamp. The clamp system allows attachment of the drum without the need of a hole in the wood drum shell. The clamp is attached to the wood shell at a nodal point with two bolts to allow the wood shell to vibrate freely without degrading the shell's dynamic range. The nodal point is the location on a shell with the least amount of vibration thereby allowing for a mount to have minimal affect on the resonance of the wood shell.
Although very fine percussion instruments are made in this manner, these methods of manufacturing the percussion instruments are costly, and involve a great deal of labor. This labor, and the number of costly fine wood materials to form the wood shell, increase costs. They also further increase an overall time to manufacture the percussion instruments. Additionally, synthetic shells of various forms have been used for some time now. All of the previous methods use resin based materials including fiberglass with a molding process. Such a molding process needs permanent molds. The method of the present invention eliminates the need for such costly molds.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method for manufacturing a percussion instrument that eliminates one or more of the aforementioned drawbacks and deficiencies of the prior art.